Insect destroyer



May 23, 1933- L. B. MCWILLIAMS ET AL 1,910,623

'INsEcT DESTROYER May 23, 1933 B. McwlLLlAMs ET Al. 1,910,623

INSECT DESTROYER Filed Dec. 2l-, 1931' 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May'23, 1,933`

UNITED. STATES PATENT OFFICE LEIGH BROWN MCWILLIAMS AND LYLE VIBGILMCWILLIAMS, OF WHITTIER, CALIFORNIA.

INSECT DESTROYER Application led December 21, 1931. Serial No. 582,330.

The object of this invention is to provide a practical and usefulelectric insect destroyer adapted for usev in residences and otherbuildings and in gardens, orchards and outdoors.l The insects are killedby reason of them closing electric circuits.

One feature of the inventiony consists in providing positive andnegative electric wires which are so near each other as to be bridged byan insect and thus the circuit closed through the insect, and the wiresare substantially in staggered relation to each s other so as toincrease materially the hazard of insects that may come in contactthere- .15 with. I

One Way of carrying out the foregoing feature of the invention is bywinding par allel positive and negative wires around a thin annularframe so the Wires on opposite 2 sides of the frame will be near eachother..

Also said wires cross the ends of the frame obliquely so as to obtainthe staggered effect.

Another way is to arrange a plurality of wired frames in pyramidal form.

` Other features of the invention consist in using undulatory circuitwires under tension so as to diminish the tendency of the wires to relaxand contact with each other and short-circuit the apparatus; mountingsaid o circuit Wires on a'frame adapted to be independently handled andlocated wherever desired, or a plurality of said frames to be -built orinserted in a single master frame ori structure; and the use of atransformer provided with a fuse in the form of an incandescent lampwhich is readily removed and replaced.

The foregoing and other features of the invention will be more fullyunderstood from the accompanying drawings and the following descriptionand claims: Y

In the drawings:

'Figure 1 is a side elevation of a section of a buildin including awindow equippe with one orm of said insect destroyer. Fig.

2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the insect destroyer detached from thewindow. Fig. 3 is a central vertical section through the insectdestroyer as indicated by line 3-3 in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is an elevation ofthe annular wired frame shown in Figs. 1 to 3, but on a larger scale.Fig. 5 is a plan view of the upper end of the frame in Fig. 4. Fig. 6 isan elevation of a modiedform corresponding to the upper left hand cornerportion of the circuit Wire frame shown in Fig. 4. Fig.` 7

Q is a horizontal section through the insect destroyer frame on the line7-7 of Fig. 4. Fig. 8 is a side elevation of a portion of .a table landone form of the insect destroyer resting thereon in position for use.Figr 9 is a horizontal section of a wired frame with the Wires woundonthe frame being undulatory. Fig. 10 is a plan View of one end of theframe shown in Fig. 9 Without the Wiring. Fig. 65

11 is an elevation of a tree with one form of the insect destroyersuspended therefrom and another form lying flat upon the ground. Fig. 12is a diagram showing a preferred form of arranging the Wiring instaggered relation so that each insectis exposed to a plurality ofhazards while attempting to pass through the frame.

Fig. 13 is a perspective view of an insect destroyer in a pyramidalform. Fig. 14 is a I5 vertical section through a portion of the formshown in Fig. 13 on the-line 14-14. Fig.

15 is a diagram of the wiring of the insect destroyer connected with asource of electricity including a transformer and with an incandescentlamp fuse to protect the transformer from high voltage.

In the form show-n in Figs. 1 to 8 the insect destroyer constructionincludes a thin rectangular annular frame 20 formed of in- 85 sulatingmaterial and around which a positive wire 21 and a negative wire 22 arewound with said Wires parallel and relatively near each other, as shown.The current comes into wire 21 at the portion 23 adjacent the 90 bindinpost 24 and the current leaves Wires 22 at t e end 25 adjacent thebinding post 26. These wires 21 and 22 are close enough d tol eachotherto be bridged by the body of an insect thereon, and thus the insectkilled by the current through the circuit completed by the insect.

In order to improve considerably the device and increase the hazard ofinsects coming in contact with wires 21 and 22, the wires 100 arepreferably wound obliquely over the ends of frame 20, as shown in Figs.4 and 5. To that end there are obli ue grooves 27 for receiving thewires, and t us stagger the wires on the opposite sides of said frame,as shown in Fig. 12. Thus the wires 21 and 22 on the two sidesof theframe are staggered with reference to the corresponding wires on theopposite side of the frame, as shown in Fig.. 12. That is, the wires 21as shown by the grooves in Fig. 5 cross diagonally from one side totheother side and the wires 22 parallel therewith do the same, andtherefore the wires on the back side of the frame would be in astaggered position between the wires on the front side 4of the frame, asindicated in Fig. 12.

The object of this feature of construction, therefore, is manifest asshown in Fig. 12, as it minimizes the chance of flies or other insectsto escape or to ass through the wiring Without'being killed). In otherwords, the insects are thus exposed to three' hazards in an effort to gothrough the wiring. This mode of wiring the frame 20 is a very simpleone as it only requires the two parallel wires to be continuously woundaround the ends of the frame, as shown.

After the frame 20 is wound, as shown in Fig. 4, it may be used invarious situations. For instance, in Fig. 1 there is shown a buildingwall 30 with a window frame 31 and in the place of the lower sash thereis inserted an insect destroyer frame 32-in which the frame 20is-removably mounted. 1n this position of the device insects` inendeavoring to enter the room of the building will be caught and killed..I

The construction of the frame 32 is preferably shown in Fig. 3 where itaplpearsin angle form in cross section and to t e inner .Hangs thereofthe insulating wired frame 20 is secured. lln the lower part of theframe 32, shown in Fig. 3, there is a chambered section 132 formountinthe electric wiring 221- and 222 and prefera ly the bottom portions ofthe frames 20 and 32 are beveled at 33 to provide an outwardly anddownwardly inclined surface to deflect outwardly the insects that falldown from the wiring.

The form of the device shown in Figs. 1 to 5 can also be used on acook-table or other table 34, as shown in Fig.l 8, or it can be placedon the ground over an ant hill, as shown in Fi 11.

llnstead of straight wires 21 Iand 22, undulatory wires 121 and 122 maybe employed as shown in Figs. 6 and 9. lln a long wiring arrangement asshown in Fi 4 the wlres may vsag and possibly Contact wlth each other atsome point and thus short-circuit the device. By employing undulatorywires as shown in Figs. 6 and 9, which are constantly under tension,this result will be avoided.

There is shown in Figs. 13 and 14 pyramterasse idal frames 232 inconnection with which the frames 20 and 132 may be mounted. 1n this thewiring is substantially as shovvn in Fig. 3. This downward inclinationfurther increases the hazard to the insects over that vratus.

Fig. 15 shows the wires 2l'and 22 connected with the source ofelectricity through a transformer 41 which is provided with a fuse 42 inthe form of a small incandescent lamp. This protects the transformerfrom excessive voltage and the fuse can ve readily be removed andreplaced. There 1s a primary winding 43, armature 44 and secondarywinding 45. This transformer is plugged into an electric supply ysocket(not shown) by the lug 46,'and the wires 21 and' 22 are connected)bywires 23 and 25 with said secondary windin 45.` s

The short-circuiting veffected by an insect on the exposed part of thewires will vnot burn out the transformer in practice even whenshortcircuiting by a metal tool or object would burn out thetransformer.

As noted in Figs. 2 and 3, the wires on the insulating frames 2O 'areprotected by the flanged part of frame 32, see Fig. 2, so that theelectrocuted insects will come in contact only with the exposed partofthe wires and will not collect on the insulating frame 20. The wireson the insulator will be protected 'from any moisture so that the wireswill not corrode and eventually short-circuit the llllll! wires to suchan extent that the insect destroyer power is lost. f

We claim as our invention:

l. An electric destroyer including an annular frame of thin insulatingmaterial having oblique grooves in the ends thereof, and a pair ofparallel independent lpositive and negative electric wires wound aroundsaid frame so as to provide closely related wires on each side ofsaidframe and crossing through the grooves in the ends of said frame at aninclination that locates the wires on the two opposite sides of saidframe in staggered relation to each other, whereby an insect lodgingthereon will bridge and close the circuit through adjacent parallelwires on the same side of the frame or onopposite sides of the frame orbetween the wires of the two sides thereof.

2. An electric insect destroyer including anl annular frame of thininsulating material lll@ having oblique grooves in the ends thereof, anda pair of parallel inde ndent positive and negative undulator e ectricwlres'extending'crosswise of sai frame and through the grooves in theends thereof so as to extend on both sides of said frame so that apositive wire on one side of the frame is o posite a negative wire onthe other side o the frame, whereby the circuit through said wires maybe closed by an insect bridging the two wires at either side or betweenwlres on opposite sides of the frame. 3. An insect destroyer includingan upwardly tapering main frame with a pluralit of sides, and awiredframe secured in eac side of said tapering frame, each wired framebeing composed of insulating material with oblique grooves in the sidesthereof, 'and a pair of parallel independent positive and negativeelectric wires wound around each of said insulation frames and throughsaid grooves thereby providing aseries of wires on the opposite sides ofsaid frames, means for supplying electricity to the positive windings ofeach frame, whereby the insects lod ing thereon will bridge and closethe circult through adjacent positive and negative wires. In witnesswhereof, we have hereunto aixed our si atures.

LEIGr` BROWN MOWILLIAMS.

LYLE VIRGIL MCWILLIAMS.

